Blog

This website is becoming more of a campaigning site for disabled children, disabled adults and their families. If you want to contribute to the debate, please send me an e mail to rm@rosamonckton.com.

I have made three documentaries for BBC1 on various aspect of disability, and after each one have received an overwhelming response, mainly from parents worried sick about what will happen to their children when they are no longer around to fight on their behalf.

People with a learning disability may chronologically become adults, but, in most cases, will remain mentally as children. However, because of the current ideology that everyone is equal, and the assumption (because of the Mental Capacity Act 2005) that they are capable of making their own life-changing decisions, people with learning disabilities are being put out 'into the community' with insufficient support. They become lonely, and are 'befriended' by people who take advantage of them. They are bullied, sexually assasulted, have their benefits stolen and - in some cases - are murdered.

Residential homes for people with severe learning disabilities are being closed across the country, places that have been proper homes for many people for over 20 years. Some people will not survive 'out in the community' they need a community to be made for them, with their peers. Somewhere with proper space, lots of activities and round the clock care. These are the very places that are being closed. I marched last week to lobby Parliament with parents in their late 80s, distraught at what is happening. Norman Lamb, the Care Minister, is insisting that 'choice' is what matters. However there are many people who are not capable of making a choice, and who rely on their families and friends to do what is right for them. This group is not being listened to.

Yes, we are all equal in that we share a common humanity, but some are more vulnerable than others, and require looking after. Time and again I hear of families fighting to get their adult 'children' into a safe environment, only to be told by their Local Authorities that it is "their choice'" to live on their own: that it is "their choice" to choose what they want to eat - deliberately ignoring the fact that the person concerned is not capable of making such a decision.

Localism does not work when it comes to looking after people with a learning disability. Government needs to accept this, and to ensure that families in every Local Authority receive the same level of care and support. The postcode lottery is cruel, and unacceptable.

I have lost count of the number of families I have been involved with who have been to tribunal, who have fought to get a social worker, who have battled to receive the right direct payments. I have heard from mothers who have left their children in A&E, as they were not receiving the help they required. Mothers fighting to get more than 4 nappies every 24 hours for doubly incontinent teenagers, and having to prove 'inflow and outflow'.

Where is our compassion, and our commonsense?

Please visit my other website: campaignforlearningdisabled.org and sign the change.org petiton to stop the closure of these homes and communities.

Last week, I wrote an article for this newspaper, immediately in advance of my BBC1 documentary Letting Go. When I logged on to my computer early on Sunday morning, I was surprised to see that I had already received 20 emails from readers, and by Tuesday morning, when I travelled to London to appear on Woman’s Hour to talk about the issue, I had received more than 300.